Arvind Kejriwal’s Gujarat visit gets cancelled

AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal’s scheduled visit to Gujarat next week has been cancelled after a trade body which had invited him to Surat withdrew the invitation due to alleged pressure from the state government.

“Surat Vehapari Mahamandal had invited Arvind Kejriwalji for felicitation and speech on July 10. He was to start his 2017 election campaign for Gujarat by visiting Somnath temple on July 9 and Surat the next day,” AAP state chief Kanu Kalsaria told PTI. “The trade body had booked a hall in South Gujarat University for the function after a formal invitation was extended to Kejriwalji,”he added.

Mr Kejriwal, whose party had earlier announced that it will fight all 182 Assembly seats in Gujarat in the 2017 polls, was to kickstart his campaign in the state by seeking the blessings of Lord Somnath, and addressing a gathering in Surat city. “However, when the state government came to know about it, it exerted pressure on the trade body and the university and they buckled under pressure and have withdrawn the invitation. The hall booking has also been cancelled,” Mr Kalsaria alleged.

“We tried to convince the body but they told us that it was hard to sustain the pressure exerted by the government,” he said. The University told us that they have withdrawn the permission to hold the function as they have another function on the same day,” Mr Kalsaria said.